An industrial award, sometimes known simply as an award, is a ruling in Australia handed down by either the national
Fair Work Commission
The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the '' Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Austral ...
(or its predecessor) or by a state
industrial relations
Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade
unions, employer organizations, ...
commission which grants all
wage earners in one industry or occupation the same
minimum pay rates and conditions of employment such as
leave entitlements,
overtime and
shift work, as well as other workplace-related conditions. The national awards, with the
National Employment Standards, provide a minimum safety net of terms and conditions of employment for all national system employees.
The pay rates are often called award wages or award rates.
Federal awards in Australia have been stripped back in recent years in what they are allowed to contain, in order to promote the
Enterprise Bargaining Agreement system. Awards in Australia are part of the system of
compulsory arbitration in industrial relations.
A similar system was also used in New Zealand prior to the ''
Labour Relations Act 1987''. New Zealand no longer uses the award system, and the only form of
collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...
is
collective agreement
A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
s, which apply only to the particular unions and employers that negotiate them.
See also
*
Common rule awards
References
External links
* {{cite web , title=Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website , website=Fair Work Ombudsman , date=10 June 2020 , url=https://www.fairwork.gov.au/
Australian labour law
Industrial agreements